Can Design Save Us From Content Moderation?
Public Arts
The way in which we’ve traditionally thought about and designed our interactions with products has only further alienated us from those products’ technological, political and social implications.

Left: Google Nest. Right: wood stove.

To avoid being seen as to be doing nothing, governments are forcing platforms to do anything – and thereby skillfully avoid taking responsibility themselves.
These aren’t accidents. They’re the result of how these systems are designed and by whom, and the result of increasing pressure on platforms to do something, however flawed that something might be.


Champs Élysées, Paris door Ian Abbott

J. Versnel, Model home Slotermeer. Taken from: Roel Griffioen, “Het glazen huis: Privacy en openbaarheid in de vroegnaoorlogse stad”, Tijdschrift Kunstlicht.


Hijab emoji, result of a workshop at a high school in Amsterdam. tearsofjoy.nl.
Instead of filtering out the bullshit, or going through an annoying and probably ineffective process of having bullshit removed, what Ehmke did was basically give the user control over her own space, and create a situation in which the bullshit never gets the chance to materialize.
Taking “censorship”, renaming it “content moderation”, and subsequently putting a few billion-dollar companies in charge isn’t a great idea if we envision a future where we still enjoy a degree of freedom.
Don’t allow Facebook, Google and Twitter to become a gatekeeper between you and the members of your community, and don’t consent to your freedom of speech becoming a byline in a 10,000-word terms of service.
B. Kirwan
As the original article was written in English I will reply in English.
Can design save us from content moderation? No. Don’t ever lead a story with a question.
This article is little more than a very long list of cyberbully stories, all cherry-picked, to argue for safe-space by design the only example of which given seems to be “entry by invitation only”. A story- leader which promises far more that it delivers, substantively it’s a call for digital apartheid and it closes this soft-censorship-by-design plea with the sort of conceited “we need to talk” platitudes. This is awful SJW nonsense.
Why were there no examples of Trans radicals witch-hunts against feminist (TERF wars), animal rights activist doxing and protesting farmers and business or Antifa firebombing Turkish mosques in Germany in solidarity with Kurds in Afrin and then advertising it on Twitter. You see bad behavior in the real world and on-line isn’t restricted to just people who disagree with you; it’s all over the place. And as for this “he power- me no power” argument ; Anita Sarkeesian is neither poor nor weak; she has learned to monetize victimization very comfortably thank you and has NGO’s and Silicon Valley types hanging on her every word and some of those words include her phrase “garbage human being”.
We live in strange times and there is much wrong with the world and much much more imagined. Locking ourselves in identity-politics bubbles and dismissing free speech isn’t the way to go its making things worse. The Left is turning into what the Christian Right was in the 80’s ; an overbearing, self-righteous censorious matron cry-bullying its way to power only its harnessed twitter mobs. The culture is sliding into a dysfunctional Idiocracy where blackballing, blacklisting and emotional blackmailing people who disagree with you is what activist do all day. You call that activism I call that bullying; as bad as any of the example cited in the article.
here are some proposed design changes to save you from your own lack of moderation
– Grow a backbone
– Words≠ violence
– Talk to people instead of having your head stuck in a phone all day
– Stop putting everyone into a box and treating them according to their intersectional virtue scorecard
– Ignore the haters, they are petulant children who in real life are losers
– Stop gaslighting; we live in the information age and we can easily check you wild claims.
– You neighbor might be a grumpy ol’ sod but in 15 years time so will you be.
– Make up your bed and tidy your room.
kind regards,
from a grumpy old sod
Evelyn Austin
Dear old sod,
Thank you for your elaborate comment.
The article doesn’t suggest “entry by invite”, doesn’t call for digial apartheid, and most importantly doesn’t argue against free speech. Your comment is basically a reiteration of the solutions (free speech) and ideas (all voices are equal) the article calls into question. I’m not sure how to respond.
We agree on one thing though: Twitter-mobbing, whatever direction it comes from, is terrible. This story nearly broke my heart (my lack of backbone, I’m sure, contributed too ;)): https://www.thisamericanlife.org/637/words-you-cant-say/act-one-5
Best,
Evelyn